


down this road once more

by cashewdani



Category: Disney RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-03
Updated: 2012-07-03
Packaged: 2017-11-10 19:44:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/469968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashewdani/pseuds/cashewdani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She runs into David at a bar, of all places.</p>
            </blockquote>





	down this road once more

**Author's Note:**

> Written for myr_soleil, even though she deserves better.

She runs into David at a bar, of all places. She doesn’t like his smug expression as he says, “Well now this is a story I need to hear over a drink.” He motions at the bartender and asks her what she’s having, and she wants to say milk, just for his reaction, but that’s not the reason she’s here in the first place.

“Pomegranate martini,” she says to guy behind the counter, taking off her purse and hanging it over the back of the chair next to David. “Sugar on the rim.”

“Well, what a grown-up lady order.” He takes a sip of his beer. “I’m impressed.”

“It’s been awhile, David. You don’t get to lord your age over me any more.” She glances at his glass as he puts it down though, and still isn’t sure if it’s of an ale or a lager or something else entirely.

“What you doing here, Sel? Seriously, in a place like this.”

“It’s not a dive.”

“That’s not what I meant. How you doing?”

And David must know, everybody knows. Her engagement to Justin’s been dragging on for three years. His last album undersold and hers has been delayed for months. The story that she was up for a role in Baz Luhrman’s next project had been exactly that, a story. And today, well, today is just a Thursday that feels like it requires a little extra liquid courage.

Which luckily gets put in front of her, pink and with a swizzle stick and a slice of lemon. “I’m doing fine, thank you for asking. How have you been? How’s Monica?”

“You know there’s no Monica.”

She stirs the drink, in an attempt to not look as eager as she feels. “Karen? Was it Karen?”

“I get it.”

“Maybe I’d be able to remember if there weren’t so many of them. Or if you called every now and again.”

He sighs and pushes his coaster with just the smallest touch of aggression around the bar. “Oh, shut up, I barely call my own mother any more.”

“Well maybe you should.” She takes her first sip and it burns in that perfect way that lets her know the rest of it is just going to be sweet, and she wants to remind David to tip the bartender really well for his work, but she knows it’ll probably get swept away with all the other things she’s trying to forget. “She might appreciate it.”

“I don’t want to talk about my mom right now.”

“Well, I don’t really want to talk about anything.” She turns to face the mirror behind the bar, staring at her kind of shitty reflection. The bags under her eyes probably aren’t going to love the booze.

“Don’t be like this, Ms. Gomez.”

The fact that he calls her that, her still, and maybe always will be, maiden name, zaps the last amount of resolve she has and she whips to look at him again. “Look, it’s not like I invited you here for a little catch up. Like I wanted to hear how you’re doing or anything like that. I wanted a drink. And I didn’t want anyone to remind me that I once took a DARE pledge that I’d never do drugs.”

And he laughs at her. This stupid meathead she’s known since she was a little kid just laughs at her. “You think the fact that you’re having a legal drink calls a fucking DARE pledge into question? Oh my God, Sel. I’ve missed you.”

And she wants to be mad, but there’s something familiar about this that feels more comforting than anything has in a long time. Plus, there’s already not that much left in her glass. “Fuck off, Henrie,” she tells him, exasperated but with a hint of a smile.

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere.”

###

And he doesn’t. He sits and has another three drinks with her, even though every so often his phone will vibrate on the bar top, but he just taps it off each time and apologizes. She hears about his little cousins who aren’t that little anymore and the pilot he’s writing, and she realizes as the buzz is kicking in that he’s not probing her for information any more. How much more she likes that.

She listens to David talk and puts aside that she doesn’t think she got the Clairol commercial she went to right before this. Orders a 4th martini.

###

It would be cliche of her to kiss David after last call, both a little unstable and mouths coated in alcohol. Stumbling more closely into one another, blaming the numb way the liquor has settled into their limbs and their ability to reason.

It would be cliche, but she does it anyway.


End file.
